A/N: Chap 8 review responses are in my forums as normal.
Chapter Nine: The Price of Competence
September 23, 2010
Harry stood, arms crossed, between a still cool Andromeda Tonks and Neville Longbottom, as Dr. Samantha Barnes and two of her assistants drew blood from one of Charlie Weasley's dragon wranglers. The young woman, not even thirty, collapsed the previous day from radiation poisoning.
Charlie himself sat beside her, holding her hand with a tenderness none of his friends or family had seen him display for anyone else. Barnes stood, patted Charlie gently on the shoulder, and then walked toward the waiting party.
"The potion works," she said without hesitation.
Harry sighed in relief, but stilled again when she held up her hand. "Within reason," Barnes continued sharply. "The potion does not wash away all radiation, only a portion of it. In this case, Miss Withers body was so saturated that she is still in grave danger. We are going to have to keep her in a shielded location and apply the potion daily just to keep her condition from progressing. It's a treatment, and one that I am going to recommend for everyone here, but it is not a cure."
The radiation potion at first sounded like a miracle, one the American delegation to the ICW provided to all ICW member states for free. Amazingly enough, the potion itself was simple enough in execution that most OWL students could brew it—even Harry.
But of course, reality had now set in. "Do we have enough supplies for it?" Harry asked.
Barnes scowled. "Mr. Potter, I am a witch. I know magic. I shall make the potion last."
Padma chuckled darkly. "Remember, Harry, we can't conjure food or potions, but we can use magic to duplicate it. We can usually quadruple a potion before it starts to weaken its effectiveness."
"Quite right," Barnes said. "We are going to start producing it en masse, and will duplicate large vats of it for distribution to the general population. I will say this—it's the only progress on the radiation issue I've seen. While it is not as powerful as I'd hoped, frankly I will take what I can get."
Harry nodded briskly. "Right. Thank you, Doctor Barnes. Please let me or Neville know if you do happen to need any supplies."
Barnes almost smiled. "I certainly will, Mr. Potter."
She returned to her work, and Andromeda joined her without a word to Harry or his friends. As he, Neville and Padma left the vastly expanded hospital wing, Neville said, "Merlin, Harry, what was that about? Doctor Barnes looked like she was about to slap you."
"Dr. Barnes and Healer Tonks are friends," Harry said.
"So?"
Padma cleared her throat. "I'll tell you about it later, Nev. You wanted to show me those pecan trees?"
Neville looked from Harry's grim expression to Padma's welcoming smile and shrugged. "Right. Come on, then. We got our first crop yesterday."
That left Harry walking alone through the castle. He absently pulled out his organizer—he had a security meeting in two hours, and was scheduled for a meeting with a group who wanted to talk about setting up an impromptu barter system within the community after that, which meant he had two hours of precious free time.
Back home, he fixed himself a sandwich since the elves were busy elsewhere, and after he ate he laid down in bed with one of the supply reports. Evidently people were eating more than they initially projected and Padma had made a recommendation that they risk leaving the wards for a large scale shopping trip.
He had another report from the Met about criminal magical activity—they were requesting additional wizards due to a sharp uptick in crime.
After a moment's thought, he pulled out his organizer and made a note to suggest the possibility of having the PM's office do their food shopping in return for additional aurors. It would reduce the risk to their non-military people. He would also have to start recruiting from their resident population for more aurors or hitwizards.
He wasn't even aware at what point he fell asleep, only that when his auror badge buzzed loudly on his chest it woke him from a wonderful dream of Hermione trying to clean all that honey off his body with her tongue.
"This is Potter," he said after he gathered enough intelligence to respond to the call.
"Boss, this is Creevey," came Dennis Creevey's distinctive, high-pitched voice. "We got some folks on the wardline wanting in. One is demanding to speak to you. Says her name is Lorraine Themis."
Harry sat up abruptly, the surge of adrenaline sweeping his sleepiness away. "Dennis, are you telling me that the solicitor general of the Wizengamot is at our wardline?"
"Sure looks that way. A few families too."
"Right, I'm on my way." He considered ordering a unit formed at the site, but decided to hold off to see if Dennis would take that initiative himself.
When he apparated to the ward line, something only he could do because of his blood-link with the wards, he was once again dressed appropriately in his aruror robes. With a pleased nod, he saw that Dennis had indeed pulled together a squad on his own prerogative. They were standing in a hemisphere facing the newcomers.
Around them, Harry saw the ward sappers were still going at the ward wall with minimal effect. He walked forward to meet the newcomers and saw that the woman at their lead had the thin, spare, severe features of the Wizengamot Solicitor General he had worked with in the past as first an auror, and more frequently as the DMLE department had.
"Madame Themis," he said with a respectful nod. "I was under the impression you had decided to stay with the Goblin-backed ministry."
"As subtle as always, Mr. Potter," the harsh witch said. "For all intents and purposes, the Ministry of Magic does not exist. With the assassination of the Minister and Senior Undersecrtary of Magic, by law the leadership of the Ministry falls to the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. In the absence of a lawful ministry established after Kingsley's death, the original order of succession remains in place. I am here, Mr. Potter, because by law and tradition you are now the Minister for Magic of the United Kingdom. And I am your solicitor general. Now, will you let us in so that we may discuss the transfer of powers like adults?"
~~Invincible~~
~~Invincible~~
September rushed to an end with a cold rain that swept through Hogwarts Valley. They no longer even bothered calling it Hogwarts Castle because so much had changed.
The central, overreaching reality in the lives of everyone there was the giant, domed dry dock where the Invincible's second dome was being rebuilt. However, other changes were being made to the ship which they never envisioned at first.
The Americans shipped them two more rail guns, but these were of a size greater than any of the other weapons they'd placed over their ship. With the two guns came an invitation from the Secretary of Magic to tour the American technomage project.
"We will go, of course," was Hermione's straightforward response when he showed her the invitation.
In the meantime, Hermione and Daniel worked on the central fuselage of the ship, altering the bow and aft to add additional structural integrity, and to make room for the vast rail guns.
The weapons themselves were the very best, and most destructive, combination of muggle science and magic. Using one of the most complex and amazing runic arrays Harry had ever seen, the rail gun allowed a "gunner" to conjure a large metal ball, no more than the size of a bowling ball, and accelerate it using the array of repelling runes to almost relativistic speeds. The bowling ball melted from the acceleration almost into a solid stream of metal that tore into its target with terrifying power.
Or so the theory went. Harry had no intention of firing the weapons until there was no possibility of them hitting anyone.
This was especially true because of how crowded Hogwarts Valley was. Dormitories with six apartments were torn down and replaced by apartment complexes with sixty homes each. Towers rose above the Forbidden Forest in a disconcertingly modern architecture that the Americans insisted on. They had no choice but to lay down conjured paving for what was fast becoming a real, international city of French, British and Americans, with a fair sprinkling of Canadians and Indians as well.
Harry had little choice but to appoint an assistant, since he found his attention pulled in so many ways he had difficulty keeping track and missed several meetings. Hermione solved the problem by siccing Parvati Patil on him.
The Gryffindor twin did not have her sister's scientific or analytical leaning, but Harry was astonished to discover that she was a meticulous planner and by dint of being such a huge gossip even later in life she knew damned near everything.
He also discovered that she answered as much to Hermione as she did to him.
The two women cornered him one night after a nineteen hour day left him bleary-eyed. "Harry, it's time to start delegating," Hermione said seriously. "You just can't do everything yourself."
Taking the message to heart, after five hours of precious sleep Harry made his way to the Project Headquarters building, which is where he maintained his office. Parvati was already there and dressed to the nines.
"Did you sleep?"
"Sure," she said brightly. "You have an eight o'clock meeting with Proudfoot and Creevey, by the way."
"When is that?"
"About five minutes ago. They're already in your office."
Harry sighed and thanked Merlin he was on such good terms with the two aurors. He stepped through the door into his cramped, crowded office where the two aurors sat talking softly with cups of black tea in hand. Harry, himself, was very pleased to see a sausage, egg and cheese sandwich on his desk next to a steaming cup of strong, black morning tea.
"'Morning," he growled around a yawn as she sat down.
"Boss," Davin said. Creevey merely nodded. Immediately the older Auror dropped a stack of Muggle reports on Harry's already bulging desk. "Incident reports for the past week. The extra aurors are helping, but things are still pretty bad. We lost a man Thursday to a killing curse."
"Who?"
"Cooper, one of the American recruits."
"Damn." Harry stared hatefully at the stack. "Davin, let's say you were Head Auror. What would you be doing different?"
The older auror rubbed his chin in a sign of his own exhaustion. "We have the aurors moving as their own unit in Special Operations. I think we need to move it out of New Scotland Yard to MI5. We need to embed our people with their units. They bleedin' have cameras everywhere. We can react quicker across the whole kingdom and…"
Harry raised a hand to stop him. "Congratulations, Davin. You're head auror."
"Boss?"
"I've just got too much to do. My wife and secretary last night reminded me that I was pulling a Dumbledore—running lots of different shops and not doing any of them well. You're a good auror, and if not for Shacklebolt's man-love for me, you'd probably have been the director anyway. We don't need a director any more, but we need a good head auror, so that's you. I want you to run the program with the muggles anyway you see fit. You come to me with results, and if you need more manpower."
Harry turned to Creevey. "You're a captain now, congratulations. I want you handling internal security. Davin's your boss, but to be clear Davin I want Creevey local."
He could see Davin's mind moving quickly. "I can do that, Boss."
Harry sighed and rubbed his face. "Probably better than me. I should have done this weeks ago. I've always had faith in my people, I'm just not sure why I couldn't let go when I needed to."
"Because you care, Harry," Dennis said plainly. "You always have. But we'll get things done. And now I get to call Proudfoot here 'Boss.'"
Davin rolled his eyes. "Great."
~~Invincible~~
~~Invincible~~
October 3rd, 2010
Twenty miles northwest of the small mining down of Ajo, Arizona, two men and two women appeared with a sudden, loud pop. Having come from a late fall in Scotland, they were all dressed warmly and so were not prepared for the 32 degree Celsius heat.
All four wore heavy, black robes and wide broad-brimmed hats that seemed to suck in the sunlight. They immediately pulled on large, round sunshades. "Are they running late, do you think?" Hermione asked.
Harry, though, pointed to a lone black Suburban with thick, all-terrain tires waiting nearby. Someone climbed out—a wizard with a balding head hidden under a broad-brimmed hat as large and black as their own. In fact, his robes looked the same as theirs.
"Minister and Doctor Potter? Dr. Webber? And you must be Madam Themis." This to their fourth companion, the severe and very unfriendly-looking Lorrain Themis. She merely nodded at the jovial man.
"You must be Doctor Kapernicki," Harry said.
"Yes, a pleasure to meet you," the wizard said as he shook their hands. "Please climb in. The car is shielded—this is a high radiation area."
The five of them quickly climbed back into the spacious, air-conditioned vehicle. Charles Kapernicki removed his hat and wiped sweat from his brow. "It is hot out there. Doctor Webber, welcome back to America. How was the portkey?"
"Bumpy," Daniel griped a little sullenly. He brightened. "But I hope it's worth it."
"We'll see shortly."
He drove them through the desolate, blasted, lifeless landscape. Harry noticed the man's hands were shaking when they weren't on the wheel. "How are you feeling?" he asked.
"Better," Kapernicki admitted. "I collapsed last week, but the new cleansing potions out of Franklin Labs have made a huge difference."
Harry himself now took doses of the potion daily, as did the rest of his companions. The American wizard who first created the potion already had an Order of Merlin. The problem was that it was a gradual process—they had to take the potions every day while trying to limit their radiation exposure.
The potion, Harry knew, played a key role in America's freedom from the ICW restrictions on developing the technomagery necessary to leave the Earth.
Of course, for wizards already on the verge of death by radiation poisoning, the potion merely bought time. Kapernicki was living on a borrowed clock, and he knew it. Instead of talking about the potion which was barely keeping him alive, he spoke to Webber.
"I have to say, Dr. Webber, how brilliant it was to apply a magical solution to a Muggle theorem. The Alcubierre Drive was dismissed as a triviality because of the exotic matter required to make it work. But using magically charged lodestones was just…brilliant!"
Harry half listened to the discussion—he couldn't help but pick up the theory of the drive by being around those creating it. He knew the magical lodestones could simulate the "exotic" matter necessary to bend space, time and gravity. He just couldn't even begin to understand how or why. That was Hermione's job, after all.
They reached their destination—the road ran into a tunnel through what looked from the outside to be a worn, weathered mountain of rock. They passed through a security check point just inside manned by Muggle military police with assault carbines. Further into the tunnel, they passed through a powerful Muggle-repelling and anti-apparition ward.
"We're getting a lot of cooperation from Washington," Kapernicki confessed when he noticed Harry's look at the guards. "At first it was guilt money, but when the National Science Advisor found out just what you and your people accomplished across the pond, they decided it might be worth funding. I have to admit the money is how we were able to catch up with you so fast."
What trepidation Harry might have felt by the Americans completing their ship first was completely offset by both the potion they shared and the fifty magical rail guns that were currently being installed on the Invincible.
In truth, he felt better knowing that the Invincible was not going to be the only magical ship. The idea of captaining the only survivors of the wizarding race was a heavy burden. Sharing it made him feel much, much better. They drove out of the tunnel into the largest interior space Harry had ever seen. It dwarfed their dry-dock facility entirely.
The entire mountain had been carved out, and overhead a retractable domed roof gave mute evidence of where the three ships currently under construction would leave from.
The ships themselves were significantly smaller than the Invincible, but were of almost the same exact design save instead of two opposite sloping domes forming a curving rhomboidal shape, each ship had a single forward-sloping dome on a thick rectangular fuselage. The fuselage was two hundred feet long and sixty feet wide, and thirty feet thick throughout, while the dome at its height extended another sixty feet above the central fuselage.
The other two ships were still under the early stages of construction, which did make Harry feel a little better.
"Harry Potter!"
Harry blinked and found himself being approached by a whole phalanx of wizards and witches led by none other than the Secretary of Magic himself, Oliver Courtier.
"Mr. Secretary," Harry said with a nod while he took the man's hand. He was intimately aware of the many camera flashes going off. "Thank you for inviting us."
"Well, since the inaugural flight of the Enterprise wouldn't be happening without you, it felt only right to have you witness it."
The Secretary of Magic was a consummate politician, with hair not even Lucius Malfoy could have critiqued, and a chiseled, handsome face lightly touched with cosmetic charms to ensure his skin did not gleam or reflect the light with any natural oils. His handshake felt firm and practiced, and his three-piece Muggle suit was expensively tailored.
But for all his political appearance, Harry knew Kingsley had respected the man and, as much as any politician, Courtier at least tried to do the right thing. So he smiled and played the politician himself, even fielding a few questions about the tumultuous state of affairs in England before the Secretary's people called off the press.
Harry could feel the Muffliato charm the Secretary's security cast on them as they walked toward the completed ship.
"Mr. Secretary, may I introduce my wife, Doctor Hermione Potter, our colleague Doctor Daniel Webber, and Madame Lorraine Thetis, Esquire. Daniel, Hermione and the late Doctor Waterstone are responsible for the design of the Waterstone drive."
"So I've heard," Courtier said as he shook their hands. "It's a remarkable piece of work, and the fact that you had monocular recordings of a test flight making it to Mars in seconds is what made all of this possible. Without President Wilson's backing we would never have received the funding or support to do this. And Lorraine, it's wonderful to see you again. How are your granddaughters?
"Alive at Hogwarts, thank Merlin," the aged solicitor said. "Thank you for asking."
They were hustled into a spacious conference room bulging with various foods. Kapernicki followed, along with two granite-faced guards. Once the door was closed, the Secretary's entire countenance shifted. It was remarkable watching the man's smile fade, his shoulders slump and his back bend under the weight of inevitability.
"Please help yourselves," he said with a wave toward the trays. "I hope you can forgive me, Mr. Potter. It's been a long day."
"I understand," Harry said carefully. "I'm very sorry to hear about your parents."
"They were both approaching a century. As much as I loved them, they had a good life. But my wife collapsed last week. She's in a lead-lined emergency shelter in Boston drinking that radiation potion like water. We're hopeful."
The politician was gone, replaced by a worried husband, father and grandfather. With a glance back to his wife, Harry walked to the bar and rather than mix drinks, grabbed a bottle of fine Cognac and several glasses and simply carried them to the table. Courtier smiled at the gesture and accepted a sniff of the drink.
"The British ambassador screamed bloody murder over our having you visit," the Secretary said. "Even went so far as to complain to President Wilson."
"And?"
"His Visa was revoked and he was forcibly expelled from the country. The US magical ambassador was recalled as well and we have refused to acknowledge the so-called Ministry as the legitimate government of Magical Britain. The PM over there not only understood, but applauded our action. I understand the only reason they haven't tried to bomb Diagon Alley is because of the aurors you personally lent Scotland Yard. That's why we, the Canadians and French have formally acknowledge you and your group as the legitimate ministry."
"Bulgaria, Italy and most of the other nations would argue that point," Harry said.
Courtier shrugged. "Those nations are all fairly in debt to or dominated by the goblin's gold economy, and they didn't have their own Harry Potter brave enough to break away. Be that as it may, here you are recognized as the magical head of state for the United Kingdom, with the full knowledge and blessing of Her Majesty's government. Too bad it doesn't change much," Courtier added. He took a drink, but his eyes never left Harry. "When is your ship going to be complete?"
For the Secretary's question, Harry looked to Hermione, who of course had their schedule memorized. "We were set back due to a case of sabotage, but with our new schedule we should have preliminary construction completed in two weeks," she said without hesitation. "We'll have Harry expand the dome and install the loadstones, and then we'll be ready for our first test flight. If it works, we'll begin loading materiel and supplies immediately. We hope to have the ship fully loaded and ready for take-off by the end of the year."
"And how many people will be on it when it leaves?"
Hermione tallied a few quick numbers. "Right now? Twenty-three thousand. This number includes quite a few Americans from Salem's and Miskatonic, and their parents. In fact, we have more Americans than we have English. Of course, we're hoping more families will join us, but unfortunately the British community is sometimes…well, dense."
"I've been told," he said, distantly. "Mr. Potter, I'm really here today to speak to you. Unfortunately, there was a steep price for President Wilson's support."
"Oh?"
"We're not leaving," Kapernicki said. Though he smiled at the statement, Harry saw wistful sadness in the man's face. "The deal is that we get the materials and infrastructure to build these ships, and in return we build Muggle ships as well as ours. Half of our designers are either Muggle or Muggleborn. The three we have mostly built will be the only ships available for our magical population—the next six are supposed to be for Muggle citizens. Trying to retrofit the design specs has proven difficult."
"I'd say more than that," Hermione said. "Long term exposure to the magical fields could be dangerous to Muggles."
"Will be," Kapernicki corrected. "We've confirmed that Muggles begin to deteriorate within a few months in a magic-saturated area. And we can't fix it. These ships will never hold Muggles safely. The fields have the same effect on Muggles that the radiation is having on us. But if we admit that, then we lose our funding. If we leave on the first ship, they'll pull the plug on the rest. They may even try taking them by force—they have a lot of heavily armed personnel here that we do not have direct control over."
"I and the senior members of the Department of Magic will be remaining behind," Courtier said soberly. "Doctor Kapernicki and most of his staff will as well. Though we will be lying through our teeth, by remaining we hopefully will buy time for at least some of our people to escape. As you know, the Department is not allowed to maintain a standing military, only a single magical National Guard unit of two hundred, plus our law enforcement department. We do not have a strong military infrastructure or hierarchy. Our leaders are political. Canada and France are both in a similar circumstance. That's why I want to draft a treaty with you, Mr. Potter, as the head of the British magical ministry, to be overall commander of any magical craft that leave this Earth between our two nations."
"You want me in charge of the American ships?" Harry asked, astonished.
Courtier chuckled. "Augustin Clements was my transfiguration professor at Ilvermorny, and was an advisor for me while I ran the American DMLE. I trust his judgment. He and Professor Franklin-Claggett both spoke very highly not just of your magical ability, but of your natural leadership. The fact you are here, now, is proof. I don't have anyone internal I can trust with this, Mr. Potter. To trust with my daughter, her husband and my grandchildren. And if you agree, I am more than willing to share resources with you. You liked those guns? We have bigger ones—massive monsters that can put enough kinetic energy into a conjured piece of metal to make a nuke look like a slingshot. The ICW was building them in case the Muggle world ever turned on us and the President has no idea they exist."
That was something new to Harry. "Every little bit helps," he said. "Mr. Secretary, for me it's not of question of whether or not I'll help—of course I will. If you want me in charge, then I'll do my best. I'm just not sure your people would accept me."
Further down the table, Kapernicki laughed. "Mr. Potter, you're something of a superman here in the States. Americans love the idea of the lone hero fighting the good fight and winning. I don't think there's any risk of our people rejecting you."
"Especially if there is a treaty in place signed by me," Courtier said. "There's a reason I've been in office for fifteen years, and it has nothing to do with corruption. So, if you're in agreement, let's get the paperwork done first so we can watch this remarkable ship take off."
Neither Harry nor Hermione were lawyers, but Madame Thetis was not just any lawyer—she was the best Magical Britain had to offer. She accepted one of the four copies of the parchment treaty with quiet dignity and began reading over it with her wand like a guide. Harry and Hermione took another copy and read themselves, while Daniel played with his carbon wand in ill-restrained boredom.
The treaty the Americans drafted was astonishingly clear, using simple, easy-to-understand language. It formed the North Atlantic Magical Preservation Organization and appointed Harry as Admiral and Plenipotentiary of the magical governments of England, The United States, Canada, and to Harry's continued surprise, France.
More surprising still, the French Minister for Magic had already signed the treaty, and her signature was witnessed by Francois Delacour, Fleur's father.
"Madame Maxime had words with Minister Suaveterre. It was smart getting the schools on your side," Courtier explained with a wry smile when Harry questioned it. "The headmasters always had a huge hand in shaping the political landscape of their respective nations."
The Canadian Minister for Magic had signed as well, making it a four nation union. Mexico was noticeably absent, Harry saw. However, he knew that the Spanish brought goblins with them when they colonized the country, whereas the Americans vehemently refused to let goblins into their territories.
He knew prior to coming that Courtier wanted to discuss the project with him, but the scope was surprising. He turned to Hermione, and saw immediately that she was not surprised. "So how much did you know?"
"You were doing a duty rotation with the aurors in London when Madame Themis mentioned it," Hermione explained. She didn't apologize, which meant she believed strongly it was the right thing to do. But it also meant that she felt comfortable with everything.
He looked to the aged attorney. "Madame Themis?"
"The treaty is much I expected," she said. "We used simplified language for future generations, assuming there are such generations. Secretary Courtier, the other heads of state and I agree that in times of great danger, having a fully functioning democratic government can be problematic. It is impossible for any committee to make snap decisions that may be necessary for our survival. This treaty gives you a remarkable amount of power, Mr. Potter, but also provides a frame work for a switch over to a more democratic government as circumstances allow. It also ensures the preservation of basic rights for all members of your fleet. As Solicitor General for the Wizengamot, I recommend you sign it."
"Hermione?"
"It gives us something we're going to need," Hermione said. "Legitimacy. Right now, people are following you because in a real sense it's your ship. Once they're on board, though, and the immediate risk is over, they may start pushing. Having this legitimizes you as the legal government and authority. Sign it, Harry."
"You were the one worried about this, weren't you?"
Hermione bit her lip. "Andromeda spoke about your decisions, and what right you had to make them. This answers that concern."
"Alright," Harry said simply, before turning and signing his name to all four copies of the treaty. Madame Themis witnessed his signature, while Dr. Kapernicki witnessed Secretary Courtier's signature on all four copies. By signing, and with the Solicitor General's blessing, Harry became at 30 years of age the youngest Minister for Magic England had ever seen.
After a hearty lunch and another round of Cognac, the group left the Conference room and made their official announcement regarding the formation of NAMPO, and Harry's selection by the three other member states as Admiral of the "expedition" and Plenipotentiary for those who accompanied him.
Madame Themis made a few statements regarding Harry's capacity as Minister for Magic, and finally Harry made a short, impromptu speech, much as he had to do occasionally as DMLE director. When it was finally done, the reporters were again herded away by Courtier's people.
"We didn't want to take any unnecessary risks in case the test flight failed," Courtier explained as they watched the reporters escorted out of the hangar.
"I understand completely," Harry said, remembering how much energy even the scale model released.
The VIPs were shepherded to an enclosed office on the far side of the huge shipyard where they could watch everything from behind the safety of heavily charmed, reinforced fiberglass. The volunteer flight crew for the Enterprise consisted of ten witches and wizards of ages ranging from thirty to eighty who entered the ship amid a flurry of cameras, press and well-wishes on the floor of the massive enclosed hangar. All wore light blue flight suites with the Department of Magic badge—the American eagle clutching a wand and a staff over the U.S. flag.
Overhead, the air-pressurized dome began to roll open, releasing painfully bright sunlight inside. When the dome was fully opened, the Enterprise floated free of its gantry, held aloft solely by the gravity-warping effects of the charged lodestones.
"That is an incredible sight," Courtier said aloud.
"It really is," Harry agreed. "It's not just magic holding it up—but magical science."
"Yeah," Hermione whispered, pupils dilated as much by the idea behind the floating ship as the ship itself. Harry suspected it was going to be a good night for him, and he absently wondered if they had any honey in the house.
Slowly, majestically, the Enterprise rose further from its cradle. Doing so, they could see the many rail gun placements over the rectangular fuselage, including one especially large one embedded in its hull facing forward underneath the highest portion of the dome.
It hovered over the other two ships without adversely affecting them, and then shimmered into a cloud of distorted air as the crew activated its disillusionment charms. The cloud of distorted air rose silently into the atmosphere and out of the dome, which immediately began to close again.
"It is supposed to fly around the solar system for two days before coming back," Kapernicki said. "That should give it a pretty thorough shakedown. We'll make sure to send you recordings from the flight deck, as well as the mirror emplacements in the ship."
